1. Field of the Invention
One or more aspects of the invention generally relate to graphics processing, and more particularly to connecting graphics adapters in a multi-adapter graphics processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional graphics adapters are not configured such that an end-user having an existing system with a single graphics adapter may install an additional graphics adapter to improve performance for graphics processing for a single display device. Prior art graphics processing systems, such as 3 df's VooDoo2™ graphics adapter product configured for scan line interleave (SLI) or Metabyte/Wicked 3D's parallel graphics configuration (PGC), increase graphics processing performance by using two graphics adapters in a fixed configuration that is not modular such that an end-user can install the second graphics adapter.
The prior art graphics processing systems use a proprietary interface and cabling to transfer an analog pixel stream produced by each graphics adapter to a pixel multiplexing device which selects one of the two analog pixel streams for output to the single display device. Because the prior art configuration is fixed, the end-user cannot install and connect an additional graphics adapter to the proprietary interface to improve graphics processing performance for the single display device. Furthermore, because the pixel streams are combined in the analog domain visual artifacts may result due to mismatches between digital to analog converters on each graphics adapter.
Accordingly, it is desirable to facilitate end-user installation of additional graphics adapters including installation of a multi-bit digital connection between two or more graphics adapters to improve graphics processing performance.